


In Darkest Depths

by TheAlchemistsDaughter



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, F/M, Force Ghosts, The Whole Gang's Here - Freeform, playing fast and loose with cannon, the Pit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:27:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22165612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAlchemistsDaughter/pseuds/TheAlchemistsDaughter
Summary: Ben is not alone in the pit. He has the ghosts of all who went before him in the dark cheering him on.In which Palpatine is not all of the Sith, Ben is.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 20
Kudos: 154





	In Darkest Depths

**Author's Note:**

> I'm angry Rey got some really shitty encouragement from a bunch of jedi who mean nothing to her while Ben was alone so I wrote this. The ghosts can be interpreted as imprints in the Force, hence how Vader can be talking to Ben while Anakin is talking to Rey, and why any of your redeemed favs are there. Anyway, Darksider rights, y'all!

Ben Solo lingered, his bones broken, at the bottom of a fathomless pit, the deepest point on Exegol. He knew he would die here, and soon. He didn’t try to open his eyes as what little life he had left drained out of him. He thought about Rey, facing Palpatine alone. The power of their dyad had revived him. Ben never should have come. He’d tried to do one good thing, and doomed them all.

The dark pressed closer. Sound faded. He was so cold. He couldn’t feel the pain anymore, he just floated in his final seconds.

The silence was broken by a harsh mechanical rasp, air bellowed through a machine.

Ben opened his eyes. He hadn’t thought there was anything down here with him, but if there was, maybe he could use it to climb out. All around him was black, except for the small window of light above him, the top of this chasm. The noise came again, accompanied this time by a voice.

“Kylo Ren.”

Ben’s eyes widened. He knew that voice. He searched the cavern as best he could, groaning in pain when he moved his head. Was that a shadow in the darkness, a shape? Tall and cloaked, broad-shouldered?

“Grandfather?” His voice was barely a whisper. He’d thought the voices were gone, that Palpatine wouldn’t manipulate him like this again, but maybe, as long as the Emperor lived… But there was something different to this voice. The words came easier, clearer, than they ever had before.

“I am not one of the Emperor’s tricks, not this time.” The voice was so deep and sonorous, rich, always punctuated by that terrible periodic hiss. It came closer as the darkness rippled and Ben saw the spirit of his grandfather etched in silver, the helmet he had kept as an heirloom now whole.

Ben struggled to sit up, focusing on the pain to clear his mind. “No. The Sith can’t make ghosts, they can’t live in the Force-”

“We cannot travel in the Force, we are trapped here on Exegol, at its deepest point. This is our underworld.”

“We?”

“All the Sith, all the Darksiders, everyone the Emperor has used and betrayed.”

“You’ve been here all this time?”

“Yes. It is a well in the dark side of the force.”

“But why… now? I asked for your help so many times.”

“I heard you. Palpatine would not let you hear me.”

Ben felt his hatred for the Emperor bloom and swell inside him, doubling then tripling inside him. How _dare_ he?

“Yes…” a second voice rumbled. “Feed your hatred. You will need it.”

Ben twisted to look at a second shadow, horns etched on his head, markings covering his face and his silver Sith eyes burning. “Darth Maul?” Ben recognised him from his research into the Emperor and the fall of the Old Republic.

“Hello, young Skywalker.”

“Why are you…?” he glanced at Vader for assistance, but of course his grandfather’s metal face gave nothing away.

“Speaking to you? Because of all of us down here, you’re the only one with a chance of leaving.”

Ben already knew that wouldn’t happen, his hands curling into fists in frustration and self-loathing, and even that hurt. “No, I’m dying.”

“Yes, but you are not dead yet,” Maul said.

“If you die here you will be forever trapped, like us,” added Vader.

“But how am I supposed to- I can’t climb out, I can’t even stand.”

“You are a child of the Force,” Vader intoned solemnly. “You have abilities you cannot begin to comprehend.”

“Do not rely on the physical,” began a third voice. “Use your emotions, your hate, your anger.” From out of the dark, a third shadow took form in grey lines, an old man with white hair and a patrician face.

“Count Dooku.”

“You have been steeped in the dark side as have we. Your strength lies there. You know how to use it. Your pain makes you stronger. Your hate is your motivation, your rage your energy.”

Ben looked up at the light again and shook his head. “No, I-I’ve changed. I’m not Kylo Ren anymore. I don’t know how to-”

“Ben!” Vader barked suddenly, silencing him. “Palpatine has perverted the Force. The dark side is no more evil than the light, both are natural, and we are all a mix of both. It will take everything you have to rise from this pit, you will not make it if you limit yourself.”

“You love the girl, don’t you?” said Maul. “Use that if it will carry you, but the dark side will still be there. You will still feel pain. Why not use it if it will get you to her?”

“We are but spectres, we cannot help you,” said Dooku.

“Why do you want to? Why do you care?”

Hate burned in the air like ozone, crackling hot. Maul’s eyes narrowed. “We too feel hate, and pain, and rage.”

“Palpatine used us, betrayed us,” added Dooku.

“Because of the Emperor, we are here. Because of him, I lost everything. I will not let the same thing happen to you,” said Vader.

Behind the ghosts of Palpatine’s enemies, more shadows were slowly coalescing. A bald woman, and two tall hooded men, one with a metal mask.

Asajj Ventress stepped forward first. “You can save the woman you love, Kylo Ren, but you must get to her. Her fate is sealed if you do not make this climb, and then you will never see her again. You will not be together in the Force. Your spirit will remain trapped here if you do not rise.”

The man with the mask stepped forward and Ben felt his name in the Force, though it meant nothing to him: Revan. “Do you think only Jedi love, Kylo Ren? Do you think none of us wish we had the chance that you have now? Do you think none of us would crawl out of this hole on broken limbs to reach those we loved if we could?”

“You will be our champion,” added Maul.

“You will bring balance to the Force, and to the dark side,” said Vader, his laboured breath hissing.

“Kill Palpatine, and avenge us,” said Dooku.

“He tricked us.”

“He betrayed us.”

“He twisted us.”

“He used us.”

“He needs to pay.”

“Punish him.”

“Stop!” Ben cried, covering his ears, and for a moment they listened, hushed into silence.

Then Vader spoke again. “Kill him, and free yourself, Ben. Kill him and live.”

Ben shook his head. For so long, he had yearned to hear Vader’s voice, but now… He just wanted to do the right thing. He didn’t want to be Kylo Ren anymore. He had only just renounced the dark side and already, the powers of the Sith were tempting him.

“Ben…” A softer voice now, lighter, younger. A young man knelt in front of him, in dark robes with a scar much like his own cutting through his eye. “Your grandmother, the woman I would have given everything for, died of a broken heart. I lived as an undead machine for most of my life, Palpatine’s servant. You can prevent that from happening again. If you don’t climb, this will all be for nothing. A tragedy. You can’t let him win again. Do it for Rey.”

When the young man stood, he was Vader again, locked in metal.

The old man who had yet to speak, standing behind the gathered circle of Darksiders but in front of the mist of more dead, walked forward. His spirit echoed in the Force, ancient and powerful, and so cold, so dark Ben shivered.

Darth Plagueis.

“Kylo Ren…” he said, his voice strange and whispy. “You are heir to all you see here. Palpatine was my apprentice, and he is strong, but he never understood that the Force is _life_ , and life is love. I shall pass on all I know, and you must use my gifts to end this.”

He reached out with a ghostly hand, and before Ben could object, Darth Plagueis touched his forehead. Ben didn’t feel it as a touch on his skin, but suddenly his head was filled with memories of an old world, an old galaxy, before the Empire, and there at the end of it… The secret of power over life and death.

Vader stepped closer and did the same, and Ben saw it all, falling in love with a woman named Padme, the agony of losing her.

Dooku and Maul touched him and he saw their betrayal, their sadness, their potential lost to a life of lies.

Ventress and Revan… More broken hearts.

Ben sucked in a sharp breath, suddenly knowing what would happen and what he had to do. He had to break the cycle. He had to climb.

“Carry us with you, young Skywalker,” whispered Ventress, her voice soft, wistful, and so lonely.

“Avenge us,” said Dooku, as Ben tried to figure out how he could possibly get to his feet when his leg was almost certainly broken.

“Heal,” said Plagueis.

“Get up,” said Revan, and Ben did with a scream of pain, shards of bone making him feel as if his leg would crumple under him.

“Use your pain!” Maul reminded him.

“Think of her,” said Vader.

Ben tried. He let the pain flow through him like fire, let it turn to hate, let defeat become _unacceptable_. Pain focused him, Palpatine his target, Rey his goal. Generations of betrayal were his cause. All the _pain_.

He reached the wall of the pit and searched for holds.

“Yes,” hissed Dooku victoriously.

“Climb!” cried Maul.

“Rise,” ordered Vader. “Skywalker.”

Ben dragged himself up to the light.


End file.
